COCKPEN

A parish in the East of Edinburghshire, containing at its
North West corner the village of Bonnyrigg (2 miles South
West of Dalkeith), and also the villages or hamlets of
Hunterfield, Poltonhall, Prestonholm, and Westhall with part
of Lasswade. It is bounded West and North by Lasswade, North
East and East by Newbattle, and South by Carrington. The
South Esk, entering the parish from the South, intersects it
for nearly 1½ miles; traces afterwards part of its
boundary with Newbattle, receiving there Dalhousie Burn; and
the North Esk flows, for a brief distance, along the Lasswade
border. The land-surface is flattish, though rising southward
from less than 200 to over 400 feet above sea-level; it
exhibits everywhere a rich and highly-cultivated aspect, and
along the banks of the stream is often singularly
picturesque.

The parish church has records for birth dating from 1690,
for marriages from 1747 and for deaths from 1747. These are
held in the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh
and copies on microfilm may be consulted in the Midlothian
Studies Centre in Loanhead and also in
LDS Family
History Centres around the world.

For a social and economic record of the parishes of East Lothian together
with considerable statistical material, see Sir John Sinclair's Statistical
Account of Scotland, which was compiled in the 1790s. Follow-up works to
this were the New Statistical Account (also known as the Second Statistical Account)
which was prepared in the 1830s and 1840s; and more recently the Third Statistical
Account which has been prepared since the Second World War.